Fittingly for what it was to contain, Vida Nueva began on the 12th of June 1898 just as the Desastre del 98 was unfolding, in which the last of Spain’s significant colonies were lost to the United States.[1] The weekly newspaper soon came to epitomize the spirit of the Generación del 98, the writers, artists and thinkers who sought to critique Spanish society and rebel against the established traditions, mentalities and aesthetics which had led to Spain’s current lamented